1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a machine interpreter and more particulary to an interpreter for storing example sentences and parallel translated sentences thereof in pairs and for displaying appropriate parallel translated sentences according to a user's request for retrieval.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, a lot of glossaries of conversation examples having many conversational expressions have been published. A conversational sentence interpreter has been proposed which electronically converts these glossaries of conversation examples, selects a conversation example sentence by key operation or the like, and displays a translated sentence for the selected conversation example sentence.
For example, it is also possible to exchange in a variant part and display a part of words in addition to a simple display of example sentences. Also in the case where there is only one sentence "Do you have a single room?", "single" can be changed to "double" and "twin" to obtain parallel translated sentences. As a matter of course, words for the parallel translated sentence can be exchanged in the variant part and displayed.
Thus, in the case where the word should be exchanged in the variant part, the position of a word which can be changed is underlined to inform a user that the same word can be changed, and the user selects a word to be changed if necessary. Consequently, the word is exchanged. If the number of candidates of words is great, a screen is scrolled or pages are turned over to search for a desired word.
However, also in case where the number of words which can be inserted in the variant part is 20 to 30 or more, the words are displayed on a flat list. For this reason, the user should look at all words until a desired word is obtained. Consequently, it takes much time and labor. In addition, the words are not displayed in order. Therefore, the user should look at all the words to search for a desired word. Consequently, it takes much time and labor.
In many cases, the word to be inserted in the variant part is greatly related to a word which has been inserted from the beginning. Accordingly, in case where the words which can be inserted in the variant part are arranged in meaningful order in a dictionary, there is a good possibility that both elements are described adjacently. However, the list of words always begins with a first element described in the dictionary. For this reason, the user should look at words in order from the first one. Therefore, it is hard to search for the desired word. Effective information cannot be utilized.
Furthermore, in case where the desired word is not prepared, there is no other alternative. A sentence in which only a part of words are different, is of no use to the user even if it is prepared. In particular, this becomes a problem in a variant part in which a proper noun, and numerals such as quantity, price, time, telephone numbers and the like can be inserted.
In an electronic interpreter which has been described in Japanese Patent Publication No. SHO 61(1986)-16117 according to the prior art, a user searches for words in an order which can be inserted in a variant part and selects a desired word when changing the variant part in an example a sentence. Therefore, it takes plenty of time and labor.